Link Building Techniques

Listed below are several methods to use to generate inbound links. Many of these techniques are for finding highly related websites for website/blogger outreach.

I’d like to emphasize to be very careful regarding link structure, so it:
Adds value to the web, looks natural, and looks “social” to a search engine. For example, using social bookmarking to point to an article, that references a blog, that ultimately points to the Target URL. This type of natural/social link structure has become even more important since the Google Panda Algorithm update.

There are many factors to analyze when building links. Some important ones to consider are the inbound link profile of the website you contact, and their social activity metrics.

Below are link building methods that include: paid subscriptions, free tools, and just some SEO experience.

Visualizing the connectivity between websites:TouchGraph shows the connectivity between websites in a visual fashion.
Their service pulls in data from Google’s database of related sites, delivering an interactive visual map of interconnected websites or search terms.

Managing the Link building process.
As you approach target sites to request links, here’s a list of the most basic data you’ll need to manage (Raven is great for this).
1) The name of the target site.
2) The site’s URL, as well as the specific URL of the page on their site where you are hoping to get a link.
3) The contact method (email, online form, phone).
4) Name and email address of decision maker for the target site (hint: usually NOT the webmaster).
5) The date you contact that person.
6) The date he or she responds.
7 ) A copy of the sent link request.
8 ) The response. Some will say yes, some will say no, others will not reply at all, others will want a link back from you, some may want money for links, some will be out of town and take weeks to reply.).
9) The status of the process.
10) Verifying that the link is in place.
11) Checking the site periodically for the link. They can vanish, usually by accident.

Link Request Letter:
Make it short and sweet. Be upfront and completely transparent. Identify the page on their site, where you would like a link. Explain why you think it makes sense…for them.

Article submission sites.(Write an article with links in the article and/or in the resource section to your site. )

Social bookmarking sites.

Widget optimization.

Email marketing.

Discussion forum links.

Cached comment links from high PageRank dofollow blogs.

Link building is relationship building. It takes a lot of time, diligence, and SEO smarts. You want to get the biggest bang for your bucks (and time). So, before going hog wild building links, I’d recommend doing an seo audit and taking a hard look at your website to make sure it’s optimized.

Comments

Tip: One old but time tested rule is to search for your keyword and see who ranks. Reach out to those that rank for your term, but are not competitors. If your term is “dallas real estate”, dont waste time asking other competing realtors for links. Go for the sites that publish content, such as the bloggers that rank for the term, as your best bet. It’s a strategy that has been around for at least 10 years but still is effective.

Another great tip that has is to use paid discovery services such as Stumblupon, or facebook/twitter ads to promote your content. You can get your content in from of a very targeted audience at a relatively low cost, and if your content is solid, it will result in more sharing and hopefully links.

Hi!
I am a SEO expert I am working from last 2 years as a SEO expert .
But the blog written by you is ultimate.I got some extra knowledge from this blog.Thanks to share such a useful information with us.

Thank you Shimon for the great post. Any tips on link building are welcome!

I really like your tips on sending letters to other webmasters for a link. I don’t even read link request emails that are too long. I initially see that the request is too long and don’t even read it! You are right, keep things short. No one seems really to have the time to read every single link request email that comes our way. If the request though is short, it has a much better chance to be taken seriously.

Seo Expert will increase website traffic by placing your address in search engine result pages top rankings whenever an Internet user enters a keyword specific to your site into an engine’s search bar.

really crazy about the stuff posted here and the Tips @Avi mentioned here are best tips for link building and paid discovery services are not at all give good results for a long period as of my opinion .

Hi Shimon,
re: “For example, using social bookmarking to point to an article, that references a blog, that ultimately points to the Target URL. ”
Not quite sure how that works – would that count as a regular link from the social bookmarking site to the Target URL?
Best,
Peter

We’ve recently started using a crawler to find broken outbound links on related websites around the web. We’ve sent those sites lists of similar articles we’ve written to get them to fix those links with our content. It has worked well.

I am a wedding photographer trying to be better indexed at Google. I have been doing links from some time at my working family: almost doing comments at photographers blogs. I am not where I need but is is , slowly, working. Your text show me that I am in the way. Thanks